Bankruptcy

What is the Means Test and What Does It Mean for a Prospective Chapter 7 Debtor in Arizona?

By Joseph McDaniel, Esq.

So it is with Arizona bankruptcy attorneys. We swim in a sea of means test concerns, and thinking about the means test is a sort of constant background buzz.

Therefore, it always comes as a slight shock to me when a prospective client asks me, "So what's this means test that you keep talking about?"

See, there's this free online means test calculator linked to my blog, in the homework section.

And I direct folks to take a first bite at the apple by running their means test prior to coming in to see me. It helps a good deal, because at least after they try once they figure out that this stuff isn't all that easy!

But when I was searching for a different issue, I ran into a very nice, straightforward discussion of the means test on another lawyer's blog, so I thought I'd give credit where credit was due, and link to it here. Take a look at it for five minutes, and you'll have a pretty good idea what the means test looks like.

And its significance is simple: if you pass the means test, or will pass the means test in a while, or if there's an exception to the means test, or special circumstances, then we can file a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy for you. If not, well, you're stuck in Bankruptcy Purgatory, the dreaded Chapter 13, or Bankruptcy Hell, the more dreaded Chapter 11, or some non-bankruptcy alternative (and sometimes those work just fine, so don't throw yourself off the top of the Cathedral if you don't THINK you pass the means test. And you won't know that for sure until somebody who has done it a lot tells you how you did; the calculation is about as complex as the Federal Income Tax Code).

NOTHING HERE CONSTITUTES LEGAL ADVICE RE A CHAPTER 7, CHAPTER 13, CHAPTER 11, OR CHAPTER 12. FIND AN ARIZONA BANKRUPTCY LAWYER WHO IS BOARD CERTIFIED IN BANKRUPTCY LAW, AV RATED, AVVO 10 RATED, ON SUPERLAWYERS, OR JUST VERY EXPERIENCED AND A FORMER CHAIR OF SOME BANKRUPTCY SECTION OR COMMITTEE. NOTHING HERE MAY BE USED AS LEGAL ADVICE IN CONNECTION WITH ANY BANKRUPTCY, WHETHER THAT BANKRUPTCY IS IN PHOENIX, GLENDALE, TEMPE, MESA, SCOTTSDALE, OR ANYWHERE ELSE.

Full post as published by Arizona Bankruptcy Attorney Blog on April 18, 2010 (boomark / email).